Edwardsville and Glen Carbon, Illinois
Writing is not justa way to communicatewhat you know. It is a wayof discoveringwho you are.
Why writing feels hard
Maybe you have stories, ideas, questions, memories, and a whole world of things you want to say. But somewhere along the way, writing became something to get right. Something to be graded, corrected, edited, or judged. So now, when you sit down to create, that little voice in your head starts asking, Is this good enough? Does this make sense? Am I doing this right?
No wonder writing feels hard.
The truth is, you’re not bad at writing. You just need a different relationship with it. One that makes room for curiosity instead of correction. One that values process over perfection. One that invites you to slow down, listen inward, notice what is asking to be expressed, and trust your own voice.
About Sarah
With over a decade of teaching experience in diverse classroom settings, Sarah holds two degrees in English from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, her MA with an emphasis on Teaching Writing, and is a certified mindfulness meditation instructor through The Interdependence Project in New York City.
In 2024, Sarah founded Enter Peace Print and Wellness Collective out of her lived experience as a public school teacher as she sought balance, wellness, and liberation within a system that often asks too much and gives too little.
Ways to work together
Free, weekly
A weekly Writers’ Circle and small group workshops. The circle is a space to prioritize your creativity, your vision, and your writing voice, and each week is co-created with everyone in the room.
As a stay-at-home mom, this online workshop experience gave me the opportunity to connect with other moms without having to coordinate babysitters.
Consultation · free
Writing accountability coaching, writing development coaching, book coaching, writing partnership, and ghostwriting. Sarah helps you recognize and trust your inner voice, and undo the conditioning of fear around writing.
Sarah fosters exceptional growth in writers. She empowers the people she works with to explore and refine their craft with intention and style.
For schools and districts
Workshops that invite educators to ask why we teach writing the way we do, and what becomes possible if we teach it differently. Mindfulness and contemplative practice run through the whole experience.
Loved it. I really appreciated having an option for me to join with others to slow down and practice mindfulness and rest. It was comforting to my nervous system and body.
Start Here
A guided creative planning session for writers who have a story, idea, or project inside them and need help finding its shape. Your story is already telling you something. Let’s slow down enough to listen.
A guided conversation to uncover what you most want to say, and the questions that surface the stories, memories, and tensions underneath it.
Big-picture mapping of the project, the central thread running through it, and a preliminary structure you can write from.
Personalized writing prompts, mentor texts chosen for what you are making, and three to five assignments to carry you forward.
$300 ninety minutes together, plus preparation and your Personalized Writing Roadmap afterward
Who this is for
You do not have to call yourself a writer. Everyone is welcome.
The practice
Contemplative writing is a practice of writing that invites the writer to slow down and look inward. Enter Peace teaches it as a way of paying attention to body, to language, to memory, to place, and to relationship. It describes how you engage with writing rather than what you produce, so any form can be written contemplatively.
Most of the writing we are taught is outward facing and prompted by an external need: write this report, explain this idea, prove this point. Contemplative writing is an exploration of your inner experience instead. It is about noticing, remembering, and telling the truth as you understand it right now, writing into complexity, contradiction, grief, joy, resistance, and possibility. Engaged regularly, it invites innovation and integration rather than replication. A mantra for the practice is “What truths do I need to share?”
Every Monday
The Weekly Writers’ Circle at Enter Peace meets Mondays at 7PM at Thrive Holistic Co-Working Community in Glen Carbon, Illinois, with a Zoom option for anyone who cannot travel. There is no cost and no experience required. Each week is co-created with everyone who comes.
Let’s meditate together
Join Sarah for a guided meditation practice at 11:30 AM Central on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Thrive Holistic Co-Working Community in Glen Carbon, Illinois. No experience is needed and the session is guided from start to finish.
I appreciated how the meditation was guided. Sarah was very thoughtful about the focus of each meditation, bringing in connected ideas that lead to a very insightful experience. It was also a judgement free hour, which I appreciated as someone without a solid meditation practice. The balance of spoken guiding and the moments of silence was ideal.
Featured in
Rising Stars, March 2026
Podcast with Nechama
Guest appearance
It was a beautifully guided meditation, I felt fully immersed and very well guided in the practice. The visualization practice of the seven homecomings really reminded me to appreciate the help that I have received from others in this life. Thank you.
Sarah was a great leader for my first guided meditation class. She has a gentle approach and creates a safe, friendly environment. Will go back!
The prompts also helped me remember details from my own birth stories that I may never have remembered otherwise!
Questions
No. The Weekly Writers’ Circle at Enter Peace is open to everyone, including people who have never called themselves writers. The circle meets Mondays at 7PM at Thrive Holistic Co-Working Community in Glen Carbon, Illinois, with a Zoom option, and there is no cost to attend.
The 90-Minute Creative Clarity Session is $300 and is the clearest place to start. A 30 minute consultation is free, and the Weekly Writers’ Circle is free every week. Multi-session work is priced by project, which is what the consultation is for.
No experience is needed. The community meditation at Enter Peace is guided from start to finish and runs 11:30 AM to 12 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Thrive Holistic Co-Working Community in Glen Carbon, Illinois. Sarah Bland is a certified mindfulness meditation instructor.
Somatic writing is the practice of writing about what your body is communicating to you. Enter Peace pairs it with a mindful body scan, so you might write about the tension in a shoulder, the tightness of a jaw, or a fluttery feeling in the belly. Self compassion and curiosity are part of the method.
Both meet at Thrive Holistic Co-Working Community, 25 Glen Ed Professional Park, Glen Carbon, Illinois, a few minutes from Edwardsville and SIUE. Sarah Bland is the Creative Director there. The Weekly Writers’ Circle also offers a Zoom option for anyone who cannot travel.
Contemplative writing is about how you engage with writing rather than just the product you are creating. It is a practice of writing that invites the writer to slow down and look inward, letting the whole being inform the writing being made.
Yes. Sarah offers book coaching, an Eight Session Writing Intensive, writing partnership and ghostwriting. Multi-session work is priced by project. The free 30 minute consultation is where you work out which one fits what you are making.
It gives students practical ways to slow down, become curious, find their voices, and develop a writing practice rooted in connection rather than correction. Mindfulness and contemplative practice run through every workshop Sarah facilitates for educators.
Sarah works with educators on using mentor texts to foster human-generated writing, and on building a writing practice rooted in connection rather than correction. The aim is students who want to make meaning for themselves, not students who are policed for using a tool.
The circle is free, it happens every week, and you do not need to bring anything but yourself.
